Vancouver homeless population not as transient as believed: report

The Metro Vancouver Homeless Count has found that the majority of Metro Vancouver’s homeless population tends to live in one area for long periods of time and is not transient.

The report is conducted by the Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness (RSCH). It was released in March 2014, but a 70 page “final report” has recently been released with finalized findings.

The report concluded that 79 per cent of respondents remained in the same city they were interviewed for at least a year. 51 per cent of the homeless individuals interviewed said that they had lived in the same place for at least ten years or more. Approximately 200 interviewees said that they had lived in the same city their entire lives and others expressed that they had moved to a particular community when they were young and had not left since.

The Homeless Count reported that the highest concentrations of homelessness were found in Vancouver and Surrey, as the two cities combined have a total of 80% of the Lower Mainland’s homeless population.

In terms of municipalities such as Burnaby, Delta/Whiterock, Langley, Ridge Meadows, and Richmond, 50 per cent of homeless people who moved to one of these cities were from another community in the Metro Vancouver area.The Metro Vancouver Homeless Count takes place every three years in attempts to learn more about the homeless population in the Lower Mainland and what can be done to combat issues faced by those living on the streets.